Agriculture chemicals (agrochemicals) such as pesticides, fertilizers and the like including insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, and herbicides are materials that provide control of agricultural pests including insects, pathogens, rodents, and weeds. In order for many agrochemicals to be used as a means of controlling pests, these agrochemicals have to be incorporated into an agriculturally acceptable carrier. Generally, the agrochemical is modified into a soluble ester, amine salt, or dissolved in a solvent system and added to this are products to create an agriculturally acceptable spray solution or suspension with water as a carrier. The carrier systems may also include several other components.
Agricultural adjuvants are materials that modify the performance of an agrochemical and may also improve the physical properties of an agricultural formulation. For example, an activator adjuvant increases the biological efficacy of an agrochemical. Also, fertilizers such as urea or diammonium phosphate are frequently used as adjuvants or are used with other adjuvants to improve the efficacy of agrochemical formulations. A compatibility agent prevents the chemical interaction of two or more agrochemical components in a mixture. It could also improve the homogeneity of additional components such as fertilizers with other agrochemicals in a mixture. A wetting agent or spreading agent increases the surface area covered by a given volume of a spray mixture.
Herein, the term “non-formulated agrochemical” includes pesticides that are sold as technical acids or as technical acid grade products. The terms “formulated agrochemical” and “pre-formulated agrochemical” have been used interchangeably and includes pesticides that are sold as ester, amine salts, or in a solvent.
Currently, most agrochemicals have to be pre-formulated e.g., as emulsifiable concentrates, flowables, soluble powders, or soluble liquids to enable their application e.g., by spraying, on a crop and to make them bioactive for a targeted substrate e.g., a pest. However, the formulated products sold in the form of amines or esters have higher vapor pressure. Therefore, they have a tendency to move off the site of application to trespass and damage adjacent crops and horticultural plantings. The use of solvents such as xylene, isobutanol, and dimethyl amine in formulated products presents the problem of toxicity, odor, and potential explosiveness to the user and neighbors.
However, all prior art adjuvants lack versatility or they often limit the form in which an agrochemical may be pre-formulated as a manufactured product. Further, a pre-formulated manufactured product when shipped must be stored under appropriate environmental conditions to ensure that the agrochemical is not adversely affected in terms of its activity and to ensure that the formulation remains stable. For example, agrochemical formulations often include emulsions in which water is one of the phases. These agrochemical formulations must be stored under conditions that protect the emulsion from freezing. Further, it should be noted that different levels of adjuvants are used with a given level of the pesticide for different crop applications, different stages of crop growth, different weather or climate conditions, and target species. Pre-formulating a given agrochemical to meet such diverse needs thus requires the construction of formulation facilities that use costly energy and create toxic wastes as byproducts such as aromatic petrochemicals. Further, the pre-formulated agrochemical products often require the addition of an adjuvant or water conditioner to provide enhanced bioactivity and/or spray applicability.
The present invention provides agrochemical formulation-aid compositions, which overcome disadvantages exhibited by the prior art. The present invention provides agrochemical formulation-aid compositions which permit on-site formulation of an agrochemical, a mixture of agrochemicals, or pre-formulated products prior to use. It thus becomes unnecessary to first formulate the active ingredient to render it bioactive and sprayable. It also significantly ameliorates any storage problems since the present invention makes it possible to formulate the agrochemical mixture as needed and just prior to its use. In most applications, the only equipment required to use the agrochemical formulation aid of the present invention is a means to measure quantities reasonably accurately, and an adequately powerful stirrer. Thus, both the equipment and energy requirements for formulation are significantly reduced, thereby reducing environmental and toxic byproducts in comparison with the known manufacturing processes used to produce both pre-formulated products, and the materials used in them in addition to the agrochemicals. The agrochemical formulation aid of the present invention is a free flowing material that disperses completely and rapidly in water. The agrochemical formulation aids of the present invention also improve the uptake and performance of pre-formulated agrochemicals, such improvement has not been provided hitherto by a range of other adjuvants. Technical acids of herbicides tend have lower vapor pressure when solubilized in a carrier. The formulation aid of the present invention is non-toxic and odorless unlike the solvents used in formulated products.